The 75th Urborbian
by stuvlordi
Summary: Follow the 75th Urborbian Imperial Guard regiment as they come to terms with their situation on the planet Durgan.
1. Chapter 1

The 75th Urborbian.

Chapter 1

Takin always considered the Arakno beetle to be very fitting to this world. With the long spindly legs it was able to move around the undergrowth of the jungles with ease, find it's footholds between the tangled roots of the bushes and trees that littered its habitat. Takin may have considered it graceful despite the large folded claws that sprouted either side of its mouth. It's thin armoured body needed very little food to keep it running, allowing the creature to lie still for days, waiting for its prey to come right into its grasp before the Arakno beetle shot at lightning speed and stole the life of its unsuspecting victim. Takin could also see that this creature was a female, the larger size and brown stripes around its abdomen giving the tale-tale signs that may have slipped past a less experienced eye.

The locals had told him that the female Arakno beetles were far more deadly that the males and that after mating, the females would eat their male counterparts in order to provide more nutrients for the new-born young to suckle on. In Takin's book that made them worthy of respect; it also reminded him of an old traditional tale told to the little boys back on his home world. In the tale a Gentleman was betrothed to a lady, as is common in the aristocrats of his world, and they were married.

However once the ceremony is over the lady finds her 'Gentleman' to be nothing but an abusive drunk who beat her regularly, but like the Arakno she waited patiently and took the abuse, hiding her bruises and plotting her revenge. The time came for her when she had given birth to their joint son, an heir to her husband's wealth and fortune. The next thing everybody knew the husband was dead, his car and him had fallen off a long winding mountain path to land in a crumpled heap of metal.

Nobody knew how exactly the wife had killed off the husband, sometimes the story tells of her stabbing him by the roadside and putting a rock on the accelerator, other times the story told of her hiring a hit-man (who also happened to be her lover) who cut the brakes of the husbands car, making his death on the winding road inevitable. Whatever the method she had used the outcome and moral of the story was always the same, the son inherited the husband's fortune, and the wife became the carer of her son and thus the owner of the business empire. The moral had been to always respect woman and Takin believed that moral stretched to all species and not just the citizens of the Imperium. So as the female Arakno beetle moved delicately and blissfully across Takin's mud-covered cheek he did not move a muscle. Takin was on the hunt and he was not about to risk movement which would attract the attention of his prey.

Suddenly his micro-bead spoke to him, barely a whisper compared to the background noise of the surrounding jungle.

"_Tango's approaching your position Red-two"_

Takin didn't reply, nor was he expected to. He was close to his kill and would not risk losing it for a few needless words across the vox.

In the jungle ahead he spied movement, as he waited the undergrowth parted as an Ork Nob forced his way through. Takin had chosen his spot well, he had taken position on the far side of a small clearing in the jungle, right on the Ork patrol's path. Soon the rest of the Orks moved their way into the clearing, tearing the undergrowth with their ungainly strides.

"Whys we gotta walk t'rough dis stinkin jungle?"

6 tangos. Good, exactly as many as expected.

"Cuz da Boss 'eared sum noisy stuff on 'is talky t'ing, dads why!"

All armed with basic shooting weaponry bar the Nob, who is armed with a pistol and an axe. Priority target Nob.

"And youz betta do wat da boss sez or I'll rip yer gubbins out!"

No, wait… one of the orks has a form of vox-caster on his back. Priority target vox-ork.

With a very small movement of the thumb Takin pushed in the safety catch on his suppressed sniper rifle. Most snipers of the Imperial Guard preferred the increased power of the long-las over the auto-rifle variant Takin used, and Takin admitted they had their uses in open battles, where the din of fighting masks the sound of the shot while the cascade of lasgun exchanges masks the shots themselves. But Takin had survived this long not on raw firepower, but on stealth. Therefore the ability to suppress the auto rifle far outweighed the power loss in his opinion. Besides, the auto rifle made up for it by having up to five rounds per magazine, unlike the hot-shot rounds of the long-las which had to be changed after every shot.

Takin now made a few gestures with his right hand, signalling his squad to fire on his mark. Again he did not look for a reply for he and his squad knew the drill, and they had done this hundreds of times. Their method went like this; Laki and Mentred would take the two tangos to the left of the group, while Beni, luntherd and Kenki would deal with the tangos to the right of the group, and Takin would deal with the priority target. This allowed the squad to take out their targets in one volley of silenced weapons. Often Takin would be firing at the same target as another member of the squad, especially if there were more snipers than targets, but it mattered little. In fact more often than not the priority target was the largest and toughest member of the targets, so a couple of bullets ensured their death.

But not today. Today the vox-ork was the priority target, for if this operation was to go as planned surprise was vital.

"Ere, fire up da' talky t'ing again, see if u'ze can 'ere any humies."

Luckily the Arakno beetle had made its way over Tarkin's camo-cloak and onto the jungle floor. So there was no longer any danger of being clawed by a surprised insect.

The Ork began to fiddle with the looted guard-issue vox on his back, listening in to any imperial transmissions. The Orks knew that something was up but they had no idea what. It was Takin's job to prevent them from finding out.

Fortunately the Ork was positioned in such a way as that Takin could shoot out the Ork's lungs and the guard-issue vox in one shot, thereby neutralising its ability to radio anything in. Takin moved his crosshairs into position. His suppressor would unfortunately reduce the amount of material his bullet could penetrate, thankfully however the Ork was merely a grunt so wore nothing more than a tattered imitation of a red vest for protection, and imperial guard voxes were hardly well known for their ability to deflect sniper bullets.

Now the only thing left for Takin to do was to find the right point in his breathing to fire. Many drill instructors taught men that it was best to fire with your breath held, for when you held your breath your chest was no longer moving. The truth was that it was best to fire as you breathe out, for when a breath is held the arms begin to shake with the weight of the rifle and can make that all important first shot all the more difficult, whilst if the shot is taken when the breath is released the arms are at their stillest.

As Takin breathed out and squeezed the trigger, his sniper rifle bucked back into his shoulder. The silencer masked the vast majority of the great bang that his rifle would make when the large armour piercing round left the muzzle. The Ork with the vox fell back in a red mist as the bullet pierced through both flesh and metal to end up in the undergrowth behind. The other Orks also collapsed suddenly as the rest of Red-two hit home with their own rounds leaving the Nob standing looking bewildered at the sudden loss of his squad and the red stain slowly spreading across his chest.

His surprise was short-lived as three more rounds hit home simultaneously.

Takin reached up to his ear and changed the channel to that of his command structure.

"_Red-two to Major Kofman, Ork patrol is eliminated; you may proceed with the attack._"


	2. Chapter 2

The jungles of Durgan are vast, covering roughly half of the planet's most major continent. Despite the large number of mining installations nearby, few of the residents of the hive cities ever travelled into their depths, the swarms of deadly insects and the ever-present threat of Ork raids driving away all but the most desperate of mining companies. It was because of this separation from the human population that many of the Orks fleeing the destruction of WAAAGH! Goldteef had taken up refuge within its leafy canopy.

Stone 'ead was one such Ork. He and his Ork band had been taken in under a local Boss after Stone 'ead's Rok had crash-landed directly on top of an Ork band that belonged to the boss's rival clan. Stone 'ead mused on this as he wondered around the Boss' camp. The Boss wasn't much bigger than Stone 'ead and clearly hadn't seen what a true 'umie armada looked like Stone 'ead had. It would soon be time for a change in leadership in this clan, and Stone 'ead had a very good idea who was going to be taking over.

Stone 'ead glanced around the inside of clan Green-skull's camp. The Orks had erected a crude wall around most of the camp, built as much of felled trees as it was of looted metal. The wall was periodically reinforced by small squat towers upon which most of the clan's smaller greenskin gretchins resided; to both act as look-outs and crews for the looted guns. The wall itself had only one entrance, a large gap opening out into the trees beyond. The camp only had the one entrance, so that when the clan marched out the boys would all remain within ear-shot of the boss, thereby preventing any stray Orks from running off un-accounted for into the Jungle. For there was safety in numbers, and the Ork's weren't the only predators lurking in the jungle's depths.

The Boss was standing near the piles of ammunition and other loot to one side of the camp, exchanging a few words with the mek-boyz over something or other. Stone 'ead didn't pay it much heed, he wasn't one for fancy contraptions. All he needed was his own brute strength and a big choppa to get his work done; so he looked down upon those Orks who relied so heavily on shootas and big suits of metal. In Stone 'ead opinion it was very un-Orky of them, and he was sure to let all his companions know at every opportunity.

One of Stone 'ead's boyz walked up to him "Ere, wat's da boss sayin?"

Stone 'ead turned to face his boy, one of the Orks that had landed with him onto this planet mere weeks ago.

"Wat da boss says when he 'aint talkin to you 'aint none of your buisness." said Stone 'ead. Stone 'ead might not like the boss much, but it was advantageous to maintain the Boss's will until stone 'ead was in a position to usurp him.

The boy grunted in a manner suggesting that he was unhappy with that answer.

"why's the local boys get to go out and we's got to stay 'ere then?"

Stone 'ead growled with discontent. "We's stayin 'ere 'cus we's don't know da way round da trees."

Stone 'ead face broke out into a broad grn. "Yet."

The boy looked confused as stone 'ead began to laugh. After a while Stone 'ead's meaning passed into the Boy's small brain and he began to laugh too, soon they were both roaring with laughter in their poorly veiled conspiracy.

When the Ammunition dump next to the Boss exploded, much to the Boss's surprise, Stone 'ead laughed even harder.

By the third explosion, Stone 'ead had stopped laughing.

His mind raced, somebody was lobbing explosives into the camp! That meant there was enemies outside the camp that he could fight! Stone 'ead boomed in his loudest Ork voice;

"Dere's dings dat need a stomping outside da camp Boys! Let's get 'um! WWWAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHH!"

His war-cry grew in volume as more and more lesser-Orks joined in his cry. Then Stone 'ead was running, a small army of yelling Orks to his back, all rushing as fast as their legs could carry them to be at the front and the first into the fight. Stone 'ead's mind was consumed in the thought of battle, so much so that he did not notice the lifeless bodies of the gretchin atop the towers, nor the wining noise of the mortar fire chucking plumes of dirt all over the camp. All Stone 'ead was concentrating on was to get out of the camp, and face whatever enemy was cowering in the trees.

As Stone 'ead rounded the corner out into the open ground beyond the Camp wall his step faltered momentarily. What he saw before him was the last thing he had expected to see in the depths of this jungle.

Before him was a crescent of row upon row of levelled las-guns.

"First Rank, FIRE!"

All of Stone 'ead's ambitions were ended as his head was vaporised by several red beams of las-fire.


End file.
